Selectmen jettison Sanna as HMAC head

Frank MacEachern

Updated 9:47 pm, Thursday, December 20, 2012

John Sanna, chairman of the Harbor Management Advisory Committee during the committee's first meeting at Town Hall April 26, 2012. Sanna was removed as chairman by selectmen Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012, amid a controversy over the registration of his boat.
Photo: Bob Luckey

After months of discord from the Harbor Management Advisory Committee, including Chairman John Sanna not properly recording the purchase of a boat three years ago, and questions about how mooring permits and fees have been handled, the board of selectmen unanimously removed Sanna Thursday and asked that an audit be done on the money collected over the last four years.

Sanna was removed from his position chairman less than a week after it was revealed he never filed a bill of sale for a $70,000 boat he purchased in 2008. It remained registered in the seller's name, which allowed Sanna to avoid paying sales tax on the boat.

Sanna told the selectmen it was a mistake on his part and one that he rectified Wednesday by giving all the proper documents to the state Department of Motor Vehicles. He said he had filed all the paperwork in 2008 and the DMV misplaced it.

"I in no way knew that registration was lost," he said.

When questioned by Selectman Drew Marzullo about the registration papers with the Westchester County seller's name that annually showed up at Sanna's home, Sanna said he thought the DMV had made a mistake and he just paid his fee and never bothered to correct the name.

"In my mind, and as I said in my letter to you, I made a mistake," Sanna told selectmen. "I am not arguing with anything, even the allegations. I paid $70,000 cash for that boat. I am only saying there was no way I wasn't going to pay my taxes. There is no way I maliciously didn't register that boat. Why on earth would I not register it in my name? It doesn't make any logical sense whatsoever for me not to do that."

Saying he would have cleared up the issue earlier if he had known about it, Sanna criticized state-

appointed Harbor Master Ian MacMillan for not informing him. MacMillan told the selectmen he was first aware of the discrepancy this summer when he was checking on a problematic mooring. He checked on boats that were tied to the mooring and discovered one was Sanna's but was registered in a different name.

Sanna said everything could have been resolved earlier if MacMillan had approached him.

"Why can't he pick up the phone and say, `Johnny, are you aware of the situation?' and I would have said, `No. What are you talking about?' and I would have taken care of it just like I did in two hours."

Instead, Sanna said, he found out about the issue by reading Bob Horton's column in Greenwich Time.

MacMillan never directly answered Sanna's complaint. Instead, he said he is required by his position to ensure he has all the necessary owner, boat and ground tackle information from a boater before he can issue a mooring permit. He said Sanna had consistently failed to do that, even when MacMillan enlisted the help of Selectman Dave Theis to urge Sanna to get up to date on his information.

"David knows quite well that we tried to resolve the issue weeks ago," MacMillan said.

MacMillan also complained that he was called a liar in another news story and he asked for an apology but was cut off by an irritated First Selectman Peter Tesei.

"You two can work that out amongst yourselves," said Tesei, who quickly lectured MacMillan about having to clean up a mess caused when others go to the media.

Sanna could not be reached for follow-up comment later Thursday.

Soon after, with Marzullo joining the meeting via conference call because he had to leave for an appointment, the selectmen voted unanimously to remove Sanna from his chairmanship.

Sanna, whose term on the committee ends March 31, didn't offer any objections.

Beginning in 2009, boaters who moor their vessels have had to pay a $100 mooring fee. Once they had done so and completed a registration with the town, they were issued a permit. There are approximately 700 moorings in waters off Greenwich, split between those belonging to private yacht club members and individual owners. Some boaters have multiple moorings.

Tesei said the system began to fall apart relatively quickly until it became a "mess" last year.

"It was an outright administrative mess. I don't know how else to put it," Tesei said of the system that Sanna was heavily involved in. Sanna was a member of the now-disbanded First Selectman's Coastal Resources Advisory Committee. It was replaced by HMAC.

Tesei said the system has been corrected this year and he said an audit is important to ensure boaters and town residents have confidence in the system.

Gary Silberberg, HMAC's vice chairman, now becomes acting chairman. In brief comments to the board, Silberberg welcomed the audit and reminded the selectmen he had asked for an audit at a June meeting of the Board of Selectmen.